Satin Pleasures (23 page)

He'd personally rechecked her office and apartment. He'd called her parents, twice. "Maybe it really is over," he muttered, remembering the look on her face the last time he saw her.

Dan paced the deck. Did he imagine the love growing in her eyes these past few weeks? If he didn't imagine it, did she love him enough to overlook his interference?

He cursed. "I'll find her, Colby, and when I do I'm going to do what I should have done the minute I first saw her." He'd drag her off to his cave for a year or two and make love to her until she forgave him. The concept had worked well enough for his father.
Though it was his Aunt Mary who’d locked his mom and dad in the wood shed.

The shepherd scratched at the door leading to the galley below. "I fed you, you voracious beast," Dan growled. "Go lie down."

The animal walked over and butted his leg so hard he stumbled against the captain's chair. "Dog, I'm going to throw you over—"

A tendril of something familiar wafted past Dan's nose, stopping him in mid-warning. He closed his eyes to savor the scent that would haunt him the rest of his life. Tess. She'd been sitting in this chair.
Recently.
Expanding his senses, he realized the fragrance had been there all along wafting in and out on the sea breeze.

"If she's down there, Colby," he followed the shepherd back to his post at the door, "I owe you a lifetime supply of cheese."

Opening the door, he slipped down the three steps. The galley was empty.
As were the head and two guest cabins.
Dan came to a halt outside the captain’s cabin and took a deep breath.

Opening the door, he stopped breathing altogether. He'd found Tess. Sound asleep in his bed, all tousled and
flushed,
unaware he'd been combing the peninsula for her. Relief warred with anger. Elation battled irritation. Hesitation crept around his determination. Now he had her where he wanted her, he was tempted to sail away.
Before she could escape.

But then he saw the smudges of exhaustion marring the silky skin under her eyes, the fragility of her slender fingers pressed together under her cheek. This past week had not been easy on her either. It had to mean something that she'd come to him.

Half-naked.

He watched the steady rise and fall of her soft breasts threatening to spill out of the scarlet bustier she wore.
His favorite.
All curled up on his bed, the material of her matching lace panties had crept up to expose the sweet curve of her backside.

His response was immediate.
Intense.
Hunger tore at his senses, tightened his body until he ached with longing. But, he couldn't allow his physical response to run away with him. In any case, she already had company.

"Colby!" he hissed as the dog sidled alongside Tess and dropped his muzzle on the pulse of her exposed neck.

Tess squealed and scrambled across the bed. She didn't look back to identify her assailant until she was firmly caught in the nearest haven, Dan's arms.
"Sweet mercy!
Isn't there any way we can heat up his nose?"

Dan shook his head, mentally chalking up a few dozen T-bones to go along with his lifetime cheese supply for the mongrel. "I think the pattern's set now. I have to say, though, I don't blame him for his choice of nose-warmer."

His face in the crook of her neck, he inhaled deeply. "Nope," he whispered.
"Can't blame him a bit."

Forcing himself to release her, Dan took a step backwards. Then, he reached behind him to close and lock the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Locking the wood shed."

On her knees in the middle of the bed, Tess crossed her arms over her breasts. "What?"

"I'll explain later." Now he had Tess where he wanted her, he was at a loss how to proceed. "At thirty thousand feet, I knew exactly what to say to fix things between us."

"I'm the one who has to mend bridges, Dan, not you." Tess's magnificent curls tumbled around her naked shoulders. Her eyes closed briefly,
then
opened.

"I'm sorry for the terrible things I said," she said softly. "You did a wonderful thing for my parents and I was selfish and self-centered and unfair. I'd understand if you don't want to accept my apology, but I hope you will."

He saw her fists clench. "It's important I accept?"

"Extremely important."

"Why?"

Tess sat back on her heels, a lone tear tracing a path down her cheek. "Because there's
an emptiness
inside me only you can fill." A second tear followed the first. "I was doing fine by myself until you came along and rescued me. At least, I thought I was until I opened my eyes on the bridge and there you were with your sexy green eyes and cocky grin, making me crazy.

"You invade my dreams and question everything that matters to me. You make me laugh and carry silly stress cards. You made me love—"

Dan climbed onto the bed, pushed his dog to the opposite corner, and pulled her into his lap. "Love?" he prompted shamelessly.

"Your dog!"
Tess straightened indignantly. "Who did you think I meant?

"I'd hoped you were talking about me."

"Sort of a reverse, love my dog, love me, thing? You only come as a set?"

"I'm afraid so." He nuzzled the sensitive skin below her ear. "I come complete with a stinky dog, an empty house, a lonely boat and a job hawking ladies underwear. I don't suppose you'd be interested in hiring on as my personal lingerie model, would you? It would take a big load off my mind."

Tess grew still. "What about your charter business?"

"Think you could break down and sail with me on the occasional weekend with some of my old colleagues from Chicago instead?"

"You want me even if I'm obsessive and blind and stubborn and—?"

He cuddled her close and kissed her hair. "Yeah, I want you, maybe because of all those things."

"Despite those things," she corrected, pursing her lips.

The invitation was too hard for Dan to resist. They were both breathless by the time the kiss ended. “Because of those things,” he admonished. “One of the things I love about you, Tess Emory, is your tenacity. When you feel strongly about something, you throw yourself into the fray with a fierce passion that amazes me.”

Tess ran a hand along his jaw. “I set impossible goals and hate to lose control. I don’t trust myself outside the lines.”

“I’ve been playing outside the lines for a year. We’ll find a middle ground.”

“I’m too linear for you.”

“You’re my balance.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you to distraction.”

“I love to distract you.”

“Dan!”

He grinned. “Okay, I’ll behave.” He looked down at the scarlet bustier that was all that stood between him and the end of this conversation. “Two minutes tops.”

Dan brushed back her tumbled hair. “I love the way you challenge me and pull me in directions I’d never considered.” He kissed her. “Marry me, Tess.”

“Okay.” She put up a hand. “Wait! Who am I marrying?
The retailer?
The sailor?
The investment consultant?
My new boss?"

He sighed. "That information wasn't supposed to be released until tomorrow."

"You should have told me you were
H.T.H. Enterprises
. You knew I was worried about the rumors that were flying around the center."

"I meant to. It never seemed the right time to bring it up. Then, I was going to tell you everything that morning before I left, but—"

She slipped the top two buttons of his shirt. Her hand dove inside. "Do you have any more surprises?"

Dan hesitated, groaning when her fingers brushed over his nipple. His mouth curved around the shell of her ear as he jockeyed them down in the bed. “What do you think about twins?"

She smiled. “I think you’ll have to teach me more about coloring outside the lines,” she murmured, pressing her lips against his heart. “Later.”

With a heavy
thunk
, Colby climbed off the end of the bed. Then, he curled up on the swaying floor near the two lovers and closed his eyes with a sigh.

Join Karen Docter on the dark side of danger and romance with Killing Secrets, the first in her Thorne’s Thorns romantic suspense series. Coming soon!

Excerpt

Killing Secrets By Karen Docter

Four weeks….

Two days….

Sixteen hours….

…
‘Til death.

The first time he laid eyes on her, he stood on the threshold of a doorway he dare not cross. He fell into her fathomless dark gaze, unable, unwilling to shake his soul free and, in that one moment, he knew.

She was meant for him to love.

Untouched by the sordid life that flourished around her, she was sunlight in a gray existence.
A smile in a dingy room.
A joy such as he’d never known. She was a gift from a cold, unforgiving God.
Forever innocent.

Why God would give him such a precious angel, he didn’t know. But he suddenly knew what he was willing to die for. What he’d kill for.

In that instant of clarity the monster that lurked in the dark recesses of his mind was freed. A creature designed to kill.
To live and die.
Over and over again.
Until his angel ascended once more to her place in Heaven at God’s feet where he couldn’t reach her.

‘Til death parted them, she was his and his alone.

Certain she’d been lost to him forever, the shock of spotting her again in LoDo , a lower downtown section of Denver, nearly brought him to his knees. His brain tried to tell him he was mistaken. She had more curves than he remembered. Her hairstyle and clothes were different.

The others were different, too.

He shook his head against the monster’s treacherous whisper. He refused to listen.
Couldn’t listen.
This time, when his angel smiled at him, his soul recognized her. Somehow, some way, his fractious God had been appeased and given him yet another chance.

The past seven days were hell.
Watching her.
Wanting to take her.
Knowing he couldn’t screw up and lose her again. Tonight, his preparations in place, she’d return to his side where she belonged. And this time, he wouldn’t let her go.

Breathing slow and measured through the full-face ski mask he’d bought at a thrift store, he sucked in a lungful of musty stench. In this uncommon late-May heat wave, he was sweating bullets but the wool soaked it up before it could sting his eyes. The itching would drive him insane, though, if she didn’t come home from work soon.

The LoDo sports bar where she waited tables closed almost an hour ago. She couldn’t have gone on a date at two o’clock on a Thursday morning, could she?

Three times he’d entered her ground floor apartment after she’d left for work, and he’d seen no sign she was involved with anyone. No jockey shorts mixed with her panties in the hamper. No extra razor. The food in the refrigerator wasn’t enough to feed a cat, let alone her and a boyfriend, and the only scent on her pillows was floral. The sole message from a male on her answering machine had identified himself as a special research librarian from the Denver Public Library reminding her to pick up the copy of “The Warwick Genealogy” she’d requested.

That doesn’t mean she isn’t still involved with him, the almighty scion of Thorne Enterprises. She’s probably crawling into his bed like a whore right this minute, letting him do things to her, making her scream….

Screams.

Blood.

Death.

“No! Stop! That didn’t happen,” he whispered. “That was a mistake!”

Was it? The insidious question lashed him from the dark place in his pounding skull.

He rejected the smirking voice, the vivid images. Think of something else.
Anything else.
Forgetforgetfor —A car alarm screamed in an outlying parking lot and dragged him out of his fugue. His eyes cleared. The pain behind them eased to a level he’d learned to carry over the years. He took a deep breath to smother his panic.

Soon, he would kill the nightmares forever. Patrick Thorne would die and the secrets with him. But the contractor hadn’t been punished enough yet. Before he finished, he’d ruin Thorne’s reputation, his livelihood, and destroy everything he loved most in the world.

Just as Thorne destroyed our life.
The man must die! Now!

Restless to escape its bonds the monster shifted, but he pushed it back into the shadows and locked it down. Retribution was almost at hand, but not tonight. This night was about her.

Where the hell was she?

There! Her tennis shoes slapped the sidewalk as she approached. He caught a flash of uniform—shorts and sports shirt, both too tight for decency. Then she walked out of the weak light that pooled across the commons into the dark well that led to her door. Her building superintendent had replaced her broken porch light this morning, but he’d smashed it again. He smiled when she cursed someone named Ronnie.